Word: availed
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...avail. Within one 24-hour period last month, two persons scaled the barrier and plunged to their deaths. Last week a young Vietnamese man became the tower's 349th suicide. Buffeted by more angry headlines, the Eiffel society announced that they would heighten the barrier to ten feet. Would that stop would-be suicides? Shrugged the official in charge of tower safety: "There is only one solution: dismantle the Eiffel Tower piece by piece. Then suicide candidates would have to throw themselves into the Seine...
...Side? But it is all to no avail. The charges, pleadings, warnings and denunciations merely bounce off the sturdy Afrikaners, just as the spears and arrows of the Zulu warriors used to bounce off their forefathers' laagers, the ring of covered wagons drawn up tightly in defense. "Every time someone stands up in the United Nations and points an accusing finger at South Africa," says a South African journalist, "a few thousand more whites move over to Verwoerd's side...
...couple had been praying for a child ever since they were wed in 1960. The devout husband even made a pilgrimage to Lourdes. All to no avail-until last week, when Belgium's King Baudouin happily announced that his beloved Queen Fabiola, 38, expects an heir to the throne this winter. The news was kept a strict secret until the fragile Queen had passed her critical third month, since she had been bitterly disappointed by three early miscarriages in the past. And as Fabiola canceled all engagements for the duration, all Belgium hoped for a safe accouchement...
...political manual to oust the government: massive protest demonstrations, immolations (last week a 16-year-old girl became the tenth suicide by fire in the monks' current campaign), blocking streets with household altars, burning U.S. Jeeps and other vehicles, and riots, riots everywhere. All have proved to no avail...
Such humiliation. Doors were storm Rocks were thrown. Insults were traded. To no avail...